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Armsteeks-R-Us

Yes! I'm up past the armholes, and about two inches from the neck shaping! Check it out, paying particular attention to my beautifully aligned underarm design:

I heard from Meg Swansen in one of my emails to the Schoolhouse that lifting your arm to show off the patterned underarm is known as The Camp Salute by her Knitting Campers. I think it's a great name, and I think someday I'd like to attend one of those camps, maybe just to give the Authentic Camp Salute.

Here's a picture of the whole thing, which contains my expectation that I'll be able to finish this in just a few knitting-days:

I love it! It's a fun design to knit, because a) the motifs are so rythmical, and b) it's just gosh-darn pretty. I love the colors because they are a cheerful change from the blacks and dark colors I usually knit. I'm eager to begin the arms, because they are picked up in pattern and knitted down, thus ensuring the mysterious and beautiful Uninterrupted Motif. Sweet!

Roots

No, not my hair. But where I came from years and years (and years and years) ago . . . Laura posted a photolog entry on Saturday of her most recent trip to Beeville, where our mom lives. Check out my mom's deer herd, digitally captured by my beautiful sister.

Wendy

Do you think she misses blogging like we miss her blog? When will she come home to us? Thank heavens I have my mug. Although I do tend to stare at it rather stoopidly around this time of Wendyblog-less day. (Stare.) Yup.

Della says Have A Fabulous Monday! Stay cool, wherever you are.

Be Cool Part 2

We're supposed to get some relief from the mind-boggling heat tonight here in the east, but it's a hot one in the meantime. My darlings on the west coast? Hang in there.

Too blogging hot. Janet says: Check on the elderly!

Happy Friday, I'm wishing you peace, prosperity, and perfect health (and a bottomless bowl of your favorite flavor of ice cream). Don't forget to drink more water!

Chillin'

Far be it from me to complain about the weather I so longed for over the past six weeks. Well, okay, it's really not so far from me to do it. But in an attempt at gratitude for the suddenly 100 degree weather in the NE, today's blog entry attempts to Be Cool. Hope this helps if you are sweltering today.

A Cool Photo

A Cool Website

Soothing music.

A Cool Stretch

Try some Office Yoga.

A Cool Coffee Recipe

Perfect Iced Coffee

Have a cool Thursday, everyone...see you tomorrow!

Summertime — Day 4

We took the day off yesterday to celebrate the sunshine; and our festivities included a rousing game of fetch with the squeaky toys:

I don't think my backyard has ever been so lush and green, so that's one good thing about our rainy spring. Another good thing about it is that by this time last year, the whole of the NE was worrying about droughts and water restrictions. Still, I missed the sun, and it's good to have it back.

Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan

Still an inch or so away from the armhole steeks, but here's how it looks so far

It will only take a bit of knitting time to finish up the body of this beauty and then get the sleeves done. With luck, I'll have time to finish it up within the next two weeks. Won't I feel brilliant in the autumn, when I open my closet wondering what to wear!

Pups

Mike and Jack would like to remind you today that if you are engaging in hokey-pokey, put your left foot in before you shake it all about.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Tuesday

My cool new book arrived from the Ukrainian Bookstore yesterday, and I'm very pleased with it. Over 130 pages of charted graphs of Ukrainian embroidery by Ksenia Kolotylo, plus a short section on Kolotylo's life in Ukrainian, English, and German.

Sorry about the big flash in the center!

I'm not planning on taking up Ukrainian embroidery, but I wanted this book because the charts are so beautiful! 100s of them, all colored in Ukrainian Easter egg colors. Here's a random page:

Eye candy. Mmmmm! I understand there is some difference between needlework charts and knitting charts, but I don't care. I just feel inspired looking at the charts, and thinking about someone collecting all of them so carefully over the years. Aren't little old ladies awesome? I aspire to being an awesome little old lady.

Summer–Day 3!

Yesterday in Newark everyone was out soaking up sunshine after all these weeks of gray days. I was giving a colleague a ride to Penn Station and driving over, the streets were filled with happy people in tank tops and t-shirts and shorts...what a difference from just the weekend, when it was cold and rainy for the umpteenth time! Sun-worshipers, take note: today's APOD is an image of the sun's surface in 3D. Beautiful photo from a new telescope. Anyway, it reminded me of a site I saw on Knitwitology's blog, which is not about knitting, but has cool stuff anyway. Here's the pointer to some fun 3D art that will keep you amused if you have to work inside today. Thanks, Knitwit!

Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan

Row by row, it grows. I'll try to remember to take a picture today so you can see how lovely it is. I'm really charmed by knitted motifs now, and this Wool Gathering design is tons of fun to knit. I love shetland wool!

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Catch some rays if they're available to you!

Summertime—Day Two

There is some kind of weird glowing fireball in the treetops directly east of my front porch this morning . . . can anyone identify the round shiny thing for me?

Could it be . . . sunshine? After all these weeks of rain? Yes? Pardon me for a moment while I go perform a happy pagan dance to the sun!

Knitting News
While I'm still not-quite up to the armholes of the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan (coming along quite beautifully, though!), Flor has finished her Eriskay and has already cast on for her new project! Eriskay is a beautiful garment...I'm impressed as always with Flor's knitting. And she has one of most useful knitting tips and techniques sites around the online knitting world! Now she's swatching something pretty. . . go Flor!

I spent most of the weekend working on a below-the-radar non-knitting project that is close to my heart; I submit it today (nope! not a hypertext novel!), so please cross your fingers for me.

Pups

Della's not sure about the apparently dry weather, but she's keeping an eye on it.

I think I'll keep an eye on it myself today. Happy Monday, everyone! What will we do while Wendy's not-blogging in Toronto? Oh! I know! We can visit the racoons on Sister's site!

How 'bout some coffee?

My early mornings have a comfortable routine: dogs get up, dogs get me up, we make coffee and then some of us inspect the backyard minutely. Then the coffee's ready, and we all sit down to see what Wendy's doing.

It's a nice way to start the day. What could make it nicer? Well . . . take a look at what the mailperson brought yesterday:

Here, have a closer look, why don't you?

Cool! Having coffee with Wendy! L-B has one, too. Cheers, L-B! and Cheers, Wendy!

The mailperson also delivered my new Dale of Norway books from Bea Ellis , #126 and a replacement copy of #109, because I drooled over Frogner too much with my first copy. The #109 has lots of Daletta patterns in it, and that just happens to be Bea's July Yarn-o-the-Month. Skinny yarn, I love ya.

Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon starts today; Good Wool Hunting, attendees!

Let's see . . . what else is new? Oh, I almost forgot...it's RAINING again.

Have an excellent weekend, everyone; I'll see you Monday!

Bored

Things are a bit slow here on the knitting front, but progress is being made. I believe I've moaned about the weather quite enough. I can only hope there is nothing growing under my knitting basket like in Teresa and C's garden (see T's June 15 article). Ewww.

I'm working on an especially boring database at work and it seems to be sapping my energy! Yesterday I was so bored I actually watched the corncam in Iowa. Where is Iowa, anyway? And what else do they do there? Then I played this challenging online word game until I felt quite stupid. Only six out of 10 right as my best score...I think I need to change jobs. But wait, I am! July 3 is my last day at current gig, and so I'm wondering what will come next in my career. I hope I like it.

I've ordered an amazing book of Ukrainian Embroidery with amazing charted designs; I'm thinking of using some of the charts in a Giant Ukrainian Motif Vest once the Giant Latvian Mitten is finished. I'll show you a picture once it arrives from the bookstore.

Hey! Waitaminnit! It's Thursday! That means it's almost Friday! Yessss!!! I feel better! I think I'll head over to Anne's blog and talk Margery Kempe-talk until tomorrow. Hope you find something equally wonderful to do today!
Della sends you a kiss.

Wednesday

Ack! More rain! And it's chilly here, too. A weather report just to highlight how pleasant it is to have some nice wooly knitting to do. Here's some progress on the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan, nice wooly knitting indeed!

Just a few more inches and I'm up to the armholes and neck shaping. I think the neck and shoulders of this are going to be very pretty, since it can be arranged that the shaping follows the diamond pattern. There's a new technique for me to try, too, which is knitting up the sleeves in pattern. This creates something called the Uninterrupted Motif, in which the two opposing directions of the body and the joined arms are one continuous stream of in-pattern beauty. Cool! I'm looking forward to that part! One of the best parts of knitting for me is learning something new, and with the colorwork designs lately, I've learned quite a bit.

Pup News

None. They've gone back to bed in a rather dispirited manner after realizing that it was pouring outside once again. Hmmm. Not a bad idea. Excuse me, won't you? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Oh! And have a good day!

Spinning News

My excellent guild is creating a special project for one of our best-loved members. From MDSW 2003, we bought 13 colors of Border Leicester/Mohair roving ranging from
purples/blues to greens and yellows to orange and red along with some variegated. Guild members have been merrily spinning these up, and last night, the skeins got together for the first time at our monthly meeting. Have a look:

Pretty! These colors will be the warp of the afghan
with a beautiful gray alpaca for the weft. We spent some time arranging colors and tentatively settled on this arrangement, but it was a tough choice!

Aren't we a spinning bunch? The afghan will be very special, as befits our dear recipient.

Subscription News

The Summer issue of Pine Meadow Knitting News is out, and there's a very cute little butterfly bag pattern in it, a duck hat and booties for babies, plus a sampler afghan and a lacy scarf knitted on the bias, plus news of organizations that need some knitted items. Good job, Joan Hamer!

Crummy News

My phone number doesn't spell anything interesting. Does yours? Check and see!

Have a good Tuesday!

So!

How was your weekend? We had an easy one here, with plenty of time to relax.

I easily managed to fit some knitting-time in, and here's a progress photo:

Isn't it working out beautifully? The more I knit, the more I love the color combination and design. I love the silvery gray with the rusty reds! And I'm crazy about the big swirly rose-in-a-diamond motif. Let's take a closer look!

WOW! It's fabulous!

A Birthday

It's the Astronomy Picture of the Day's eighth birthday! Over 100 million space images served!
Thanks, APOD! Quick, let's make them some celebratory cocktail-weiner art! (photo courtesy of Nippon Meat Packers, Inc.)

Happy Monday, everyone. Have a wonderful day!

Frolics

Happy Friday!

First

Let's take a moment to deconstruct my Fair Isle knitting experience.

You'll remember from yesterday's entry how ridiculously thrilled I am with my progress, but did you know this is only my fourth stranded color project? Last year, I knit along with Wendy's Fearless Fair Isle group and the experience was tons of color-knitting fun. Wendy has her Fearless Fair Isle pattern at her site, and I highly recommend it to you if you'd like to start doing color knitting. Yes, it's nearly summer, but shetland wool in particular is very very lightweight and is only a few ounces in your lap. Go Wendy! Go Fair Isle!

Furry Bits

My beautiful sister has been documenting her racoon population, and there are babies now! Little adorable baby racoons! Go take a look; they are very cute! As is my sister!

Family

I heard from my son last night; he and Jennifer and the python are safely arrived at the end of their big road trip and are happy in their new digs. It's good to have a happy kid.

Finally (almost)

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments on crochet yesterday. I had no idea it took so much more yarn, since my crochet experience is limited to crocheted steeks. Send crochet-blog urls if you have 'em.

FlyGuy

This is a charming way to waste time today. Check it out between your blog-reads, and have a wonderful weekend! See you Monday!

Crochet Curiosity

Yesterday I was reading a wonderful entry at Rebecca's Pocket about how we filter our news, and how open-minded we are, and it made me curious about crochet blogs. Indulge me! And then go read Rebecca's article.

Do crocheters have blogs? If so, where are they? I checked for crochet news on the Fiber Arts Bloggers Ring and found 124 blogs but very little about crochet passion. And I googled, but mostly arrived at 404s. Speak up please. I know Kate was crocheting before her brief blogging break, and Steph was crocheting an incredible free-form shawl that I don't see on her website right now. But where's the rest of the crocheters? Is there a whole community of fiber-loving crocheters that we are not hearing about because they don't blog as much as knitters?

Knitters carp about Knitters Magazine, broken Brittany needles, and knots in skeins. What do crocheters complain about?

Knitting Content

Progress photo on my lovely Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. I haven't had enough knitting time this week, but as you can see, I've almost completed an entire diamond sequence. Hooray for me--I knock myself out!

Meme Content

Read all about it. Thanks, Meme Pool!

Happy Thursday!

Mimbres Update

Hiho everyone, my clasps arrived from sweaterkits.com yesterday! Four of these beauties

which will be arranged thusly:

Pretty much perfect, eh? They arrived from Ontario in record time, and sweaterkits sent a coupon for $5 off my next order...sweet!

I forgot to add buttonholes to the Mimbres, and though I could have made cute little I-cord loop buttonholes per the Great Elizabeth Zimmerman, I decided to try clasps instead. I'm using clasps by design on the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan.

Della is excited (not):

Textile News:

I saw this story on a computer-prototype jacket that is engineered with its own sleeve display, and it reminded me of the very cool Hello Kitty Pagan Tank that Nora has knit.

Oooh! Tough choice! Hello Kitty or a sleeve display? Technology marches forward, but knitters rule!

Happy Wednesday everyone; have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Tuesdaisy

Knitting progress to show you; what do you think? Colors are fairly true:

I like it! Here's a close-up so you can see the scroll-y bits:

This is easy knitting up to the armholes now. Two-color knitting really rocks my little world right now. This design is moving my skills up a couple of notches, and I'm really enjoying it. For those tuning in late, it's the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan from Wool Gathering #67, designed by Meg Swansen, and being knitted by me in J&S shetland wool at 7 st per inch.

What Annie's Knitting

Have you seen what Annie is knitting? It's beautiful and the two-color bands are gorgeous and subtle...go take a look! I love it! I want it!

What Granny's Knitting

Here's a link to a lovely article from The Scotsman regarding two-color knitting, Archimedean Spirals, symmetry and math. Excellent reading with your morning coffee.

It's clear here this morning, and looks to be a lovely sunny day. My goodness, sunny days have been few and far between here! Hope it's sunny where you are, and that all is well in your world.

Didja. . .

Ever have one of those days with your knitting? Saturday was my turn, and every time I counted the stitches on my needles, the count was different. I set the pattern for my rose-in-diamond wrong at least five times through miscounted stitches. And with my un-knitting to correct, I dropped stitches right and left. I miscounted pattern multiples, and miscounted squares in my chart. I felt as if I'd not only lost all my knit-ability, but also my count-ability. I was completely no-count. I don't think a knitting session like this one has ever happened in my knitting experience.

Last night when I picked up my knitting again (and I must say I approached it cautiously), it was as if Saturday had never happened--the chart numbers instantly lined up with my stitch numbers and I sailed on with nary a slip. I wonder what makes a project difficult on some days? Is it cosmic? Sunspot activity or solar flares? Is there an Angry Knitting Goddess that needs appeasement? Is there a video on When Knitting Fights Back? Weird! Whatever, I'm glad it's over.

Labels

Cari got labels for her knitting, and when I saw them I wanted some too. So I'm ordering them from Charm Labels today. Thanks Cari!

That's All

Wait! No photos? Never! Here's one of Jack looking completely adorable:

Have a good Monday, everyone!

Coming up Roses

That's right! I'm ready for the rose-in-the-diamond motif finally, and I'm so glad. The lower borders are fun to knit, but I've been craving those roses.

Suzanne asked yesterday in the comments if I found Wool Gathering designs difficult to knit. No, I sez, but being rather new to the mechanics of charted color knitting, I do have questions, and I've found that emailing Schoolhouse Press results in a fast, friendly, and expert answer.

Rain or Shine

There's another rainy weekend in the forecast, but I don't mind so much because it's good for knitting and good for the roses.

That being said, however, it seems as if we are going to have a sunny day today, so I'm outta here to enjoy it with the pups! Hey You! Have a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend.

Contrast

In spite of my burning desire for 40-stitch motifs, I didn't get to finish the third border on the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan, as you can see here:

I was so tired last night that I posed it on the lampshade...more than you wanted to know, I'm sure. I'm also sure that it's still highly pleasing to me to be knitting this WoolGathering design. Please note that slick PWYC non-curling no-ribbing border! Tonight (fersure!) I'll be able to reach my big rosy diamond. Here's the third color: what do you think about the contrast? I like it; it's subtle--more red than the rusty copper. But what do you think?

There Goes My Baby

Please wave to Buddy, his girl, and his python if you see them on the road headed for the left coast. (Sniffle.)

Day-Brightener

Happily, what with departures, more rain, yucky work, and wet dogs on my mind, my friend Virginia sent pictures of the wonderful trip she's just back from.

Here she is knitting in Florence on the Ponte Vecchio

and knitting some more in Venice at the Rialto Bridge:

Beautiful Knitting! Beautiful Photos! Beautiful Friends! Isn't life grand!!!

Have a grand life and a grand day today!

More Rain

But we don't mind. It's good for the new trees my son planted yesterday. And it gives me time to finish up the third border on the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan, change colors and dance into the very beautiful rose-in-a-diamond motif. I'm ready! Photo tomorrow!

Pets

Yesterday Jeanne asked about the visiting python's name. It's not Monty (ha!), but Azizi. Here she is helping Buddy play bass.

I was thinking that people do curious things with their pets, when fresh from the memepool came news of this

and this

See for yourself (if you must) here and here.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Please try to refrain from dressing your pets in silly outfits.

Tuesday

My three furry alarms didn't go off this morning, so we're off to a slow start today. Having some sun finally yesterday was wonderful, so knitting took a back seat while we cruised through gardening and even some reading.

Nevertheless

There is progress on my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan (design from Wool Gathering #67):

It's lovely, isn't it. Yes. Mmmmm. Yes. I love this design. The knitted-in borders, the PWYC lower border, the way the thing just sings while you knit it. La-la-la is the sound of the motifs while I knit. Definitely keeps my mind off of this:

Visiting pythons are a real distraction. I'm eager to arrive at the big 40-stitch diamond with the rosy motif. I have to say it again! I love this type of knitting! It's *so* soothing and the results are *so* spectacular! I'm very pleased with myself.

I hope you are pleased with yourself today. Have a great one!

heebiejeebies

I forgot to recharge my camera battery, so I'm an hour or more away from being able to show you my very exciting progress on the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. Instead, I'll show you a picture from the weekend, in which our lovely houseguest Jennifer cheerfully models the Mimbres vest:

See? I told you it was brown and turquoise.

My son and Jennifer are visiting for a few more days. My knitting has suffered since finding out this weekend that I had an additional visitor: their rescue-python.

The pups don't mind, in fact, that's Jack's back she's resting her head on.

But I'm not too crazy about it and am hoping it reaches its rescue-destination quickly.

This Just In

Have you seen the new Fashion Insider Ken? Check it out here.

Hope your day is swell! Happy Monday!